…During Labor Day weekend, the thought of making the same ol’ pendants all the live-long day sounded monotonous…
…so we pulled out the Dominoes and starting playing.
Domino collages in process, in all stages of becoming domed resin pendants, images and photo © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
And so now instead of having only a sea of game board pendants…
Sea of Pendants, different sizes of pendants in process of being made, images and photo © by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
…I have a sea of Domino collages.
Sea of Domino Collages, some covered with domed resin and others not, images and photo © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
This Sunday, September 13, is the We Art the People Folk Festival at Robinson Park in downtown Albuquerque. If I didn’t have so much to do yet to get ready, I would provide a thorough how-to on making domino collage pendants. But time is of the essence (plus sleep calls) so I will leave you with these tidbits on what you’ll need to make your own:
- Dominoes. I like to use vintage that come from incomplete sets. Why incomplete? Because vintage domino sets, especially those made of Bakelite, are worth a lot, and I hate to break them up given that people pay top dollar to collect whole sets. I found an antique store owner who had a bunch of random dominoes in her sun tea jar back in her kitchen. She brought in about 60 and sold them to me for $20!
- Images, including your own words from journals, pictures from magazines, stamps, doodles, photos—anything you can find. Stickers work well, but mostly I cut mine from crafts magazines.
- Mod Podge to glue the images down to the domino.
- Doming resin, which is described in the tutorial that I linked to in my Scrabble pendant post (see above link).
- Once the resin is cured, you can turn the domino collages into pendants, magnets, or key chains. I’ll make pendants out of mine.
I will try to provide a more thorough How-to once I get past this show, but I can tell you now that it’s so easy, my girls got into making them with me. And I loved how quickly they did it; their Beginner’s Mind did not over-analyze what to put where and whether the message was just so. They slapped down their images and threw on the Mod Podge.
But the folk festival is afoot, and all my energy between tonight and Sunday morning will go to getting ready. I hope all you Albuquerque folk will go to the festival, too. There will be a giant puppet parade, theater, over 100 vendors, and fun for the whole family.
Come on out and see us! Let’s play a game of Dominoes. (Or Scrabble.)
Wicked awesome!
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ybonesy, these rock! I’m so excited for your show on Sunday, I can’t stand it. You are going to do well there and have fun to boot.
I could stare at these photos of your Domino Collages forever, looking at the details. The link to the Bakelite is fascinating. I didn’t know where it originated. Good information.
How fun that your girls are making Bakelite collages, too. The Beginner’s Mind you mention, it seems like children can teach us a lot about that:
my girls got into making them with me. And I loved how quickly they did it; their Beginner’s Mind did not over-analyze what to put where and whether the message was just so. They slapped down their images and threw on the Mod Podge.
Can’t wait to read your check-in after the show!
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yb, looking forward to hear how the event goes. Hope you have a great day! D
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Bakelite dominoes? Wow, wow, wow!
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These look fabulous! I’m sure you will do quite well at the show!
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ybonesy – these are fabulous! I hope you do well at the show. Who would not want one of these colourful pendants to hang from their neck and announce to the world their affection for gorgeousness? G
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Great pieces of art, yb. Lots of success at the art fair. Will be interested to know how it goes?
This weekend must be art fair time all over the country. The Westport Art Fair is this weekend. A couple of my friends have booths. Andrew does machine embroidery of cartoonish dogs, cats, and people. He makes his living with his art.
Another friend I met in collage class at the art institute in a continuing ed course. She entered the art fair that summer and made lots of money from her collages on canvas. She’s back this time with more creative pieces. She teaches grade school for a living.
In two weeks is the mother of all art fairs here, the Plaza Art Fair. Wish you could bring your stuff and participate. Your work is as good if not better than a lot of the stuff we will see there.
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Holy Domino! These are fats-city!
I so wish I had a gallery to show them off for you!
Best of luck at the event yb!
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Quick check-in: the Folk Festival was a blast. I stayed up until 2a, got up at 6a, and so I was running on adrenaline. I wish I weren’t so last minute, but when you’re doing all this as a moonlighting job, it’s the nature of the beast. I got pretty stressed out last night, was grumpy until I got to the booth, but the volunteers there were amazing. They helped unload our cars (special drive-up lane just for that purpose), set up tents, tables, etc. Even did poop patrol in the park.
It was busy from the moment it officially started. I sold a very decent amount of tile pendants. T-shirts moved more slowly. I learned a few things, which I’ll summarize in a post as I think about this more. Lots of support from friends and family, which meant SOOO much. Just having people to come and chat, hang out, oooh and ahhh, and many bought my pieces. YEAH!
My friend and fellow booth-mate Lita was, in particular, a pal among pals. She sent me a checklist, staked out our spot, and shared her fried chicken and other snacks (because after four hours of restless sleep, I forgot snacks).
OK, time for a hot bath, then bed.
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p.s., Thanks for the online support. This is hard stuff, and it makes a difference to get words of encouragement. The dominoes were a hit. My friend Neecy bought my favorite one (Allow Me To Become…top right-hand corner of the third photo) for a young girl (becoming a young woman). Lita and I were invited, thanks to Lita’s incredible connections, to another show in two weeks. It’s supposed to be pretty cool, and I might make a few more dominoes for it.
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yb, sounds like great fun! And now you have another show coming up! Congrats! Don’t forget the snacks!
Scaramastra & I were discussing how very cool your items are at dinner last night. Glad to hear you did well, but I’m a little surprised by the slow sale of t-shirts. I wonder why? Perhaps the change of season? Heck, t-shirts work all year long for me! D
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ybonesy, I thought about you all day Sunday at your show. I’m glad it went well and that you are prepping for another show. Lita sounds like a great friend; someone who knows the ropes and is willing to share. Can’t say enough about that kind of community support for individual creative endeavors. A real gift.
BTW, I’m partial to the Lawrence Chair (2nd photo, top right). That might be the one I want to buy. (Also like the tree beside it.) I remember when you did the chair sketch at the D. H. Lawrence Memorial. And I took photos of the chair that day, too.
Giants Sat Here (LINK) – your sketch of Lawrence chair
Giants Sat Here – I Remember (LINK) – reply to your post. photos from Memorial.
The Vitality Of Place — Preserving The Legacy Of “Home” (LINK) – photos are Lawrence Memorial that day, including photo of Lawrence Chair.
Just Sitting (LINK) – Lawrence chair photo on Flickr
It’s fun to go back and look at these old posts from when we first started red Ravine and to see where your art has taken you, where your practice has taken you. I’m a firm believer that we all inspire each other to push forward. And that all practices lead us where we need to go.
Every day I’m inspired by your next steps. Can’t wait to see how it goes with the next show!
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Those dominoes are gorgeous. They remind me more of Mah Jong (sp) tiles than dominoes.
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J, I do use Mah Jong (I’ve seen it spelled Jong and Jongg) tiles for my art pendants–the ones with my own doodle images on them. I love the Mah Jongg tiles because they’re kind of squat, and now I’m trying to figure out how to drill holes in the sides and make them into bracelets. It’s not that hard, but Jim’s drill is a little more sturdy than mine, and my bit smoked up when I tried it on mine.
QM, that Lawrence Chair has, in fact, sold a couple of times. I was surprised, given that I’m partial to color. But others like the black/white/red. I will definitely make you one if you decide that’s the one you want.
Also, you’re right about practice leading to production. It’s true with anything, and I find myself falling back on that with my girls when they lament not being as good as they want to be at something (tennis, making art, guitar). Practice, practice, practice. I think after a while, something clicks and you’re ready to perform or produce or whatever you call that finished form that you need practice to get you to. But you still always do the practice. That never stops.
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diddy, my display for the t-shirts was not well-thought-out. I just got too crunched for time, couldn’t find what I wanted (the torso of a mannequin, freestanding) and ended up with the t-shirts stacked on one end of the table and hanging and blowing in the breeze behind me. And because they were only ready that morning, I wasn’t wearing one either.
I get the sense that with t-shirts, display is key.
But, this week I’ve sold several. Both my girls have worn them and sold them to friends. It’s kind of amazing. I’ll try to take photos–I have three images, and three colors of each image–so you can see how they came out. Very cool.
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